Apr 29, 2014

DUDE, I'M A MISSIONARY

BUEEENAS tardes familia y amigos. (Good afternoon family and friends)

RICHARD!!!!!! Love this child.

Monday- Our bus broke down hahaha. The driver was shifting gears and

straight up pulled the gear shifter thing out. Sooooo, we had to get off
and walk alll the way back to our sector. And they didn´t even give us our
money back! hahah. Even though it was only 25 centavos (cents). We have friends all
over Peguche and Quinchuqui and and Monday, the pizza friends hooked us up
with free pizza hehehe! They aren´t technically in our sector because they
live in Otavalo, but we still teach them. They have so many questions! We
have taught the Plan of Salvation a couple times and they always ask aboutJose Smith (Josepsh Smith) and Palabra de Sabiduria (Word of Wisdom) aaaand a ton of English- they're so fun.

(I think it would be so dope to come back her post-mish and teach English.
That would be sweet. ORRRRR a little birdie told me that BYU-Idaho is
supposedly opening a branch here in Otavalo summer '15.... aka right when I
get home. GO VIKINGS!! I think thats BYU-I´s mascot.. hhahha) ANYWAYS, I love
them. They heard cambios (transfers) are next Monday and almost cried hahahha. This
place is awesome.

Alvaro C. left for the Missionary Training Center in Peru on Monday so we
went and said bye to him and ate cow stomach again. We also had a really
cool uplifting family home evening with the M.G. fambam. We are
tryna activate the husband, Luis. We go over every Sunday and sing hymns at
the top of our lungs at 6am... It´s fun. BRILLLLLLLLAAAAN RAAAAAAYOS DECLEMEEEEENCIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Tuko Tuesday was fun. We went contacting in a neighborhood we haven't been
to in a while and found lots of way incredible people. The sun was setting
and there were those flauta (flute) things (idk what they are in English but I
think that its the thing Mr. Tumnus plays in Narnia. IDK HOW ELSE TO
DESCRIBE, DON'T JUDGE hahaha) off in the distance and I´m like, DUDE I'M AMISSIONARY. I have been having those moments often this week. I love eeeet.

Wednesday we helped a very very veeeery drunk ñañagu up the giant hill that
leads the Quinchuqui. She was fallin backwards, bless her heart. We knew
her from a week ago, she´s a sweetheart, like 67 years old... Well I was
thankful I had previous experience with drunk people (heh) because it made
it a tad easier to help her up the mountain to her grandkid´s house. We
went back to teach her like 3 times but shes MIA. So wa, becuase I love
her. We gave her a picture of Jesus and she kissed it like 93,084 times and
kept looking up to the heavens. People are so special. We taught ley decastidad (law of chastity) like 748 times this week. (okay, 4 times) But I really have a
testimony of it! God loves us and wants to stay clean morally and
spiritually! It truly makes you happier.

Thursday we helped weed and mover la tierra (move dirt) in the big terreno dondesembramos unos papas hace uuuuuu full tiempo (earth where we planted potatoes and it took a long time). Era como hace unos 11 semanas, la verdad (It was like 11 weeks ago, truthfully.) Pero fue super lindo poder ver que estan creciendo. (But it was really great to see how they've grown.) Pero me hizo recordar acerca de Alma y (But I remembered about Alma and) the seed that he talks about. The seed of faith. We can all nourish and strengthen that seed of faith that we have and make sure that it grows by giving it the necessary things. Primary

answers, church, prayer, scriptures.

I was studying the New Testament and had such a breakthrough. Christ taught through parables and so can we. Sometimes the language barrier with Kichwa can be a tad frustrating but are using lots of examples and videos and pictures and hands on activities and just applying the Gospel directly to their lives. Which is totally what we should have been doing all along, but it was really cool to relacionar it with the way that Christ taught.

On Friday we cleaned the chapel! So that was way fun. I loved cleaning the baptismal font. I also superglued my fingers together. Not a clue how that happened. We gave Alfonzo, a Libro De Mormon (Book of Mormon) for his b-day, he was really happy for the picture of us in it, but not for the actual Book Of Mormon. We are workin' on it. Elena prays everyday for Heavenly Father to iluminar (enlighten) him and help him open his heart.

Friday WAS AWEOSME BECAUSE ALFONZO PRAAAAYEDDDDDDDDD FOR THE FIRST TIMEEEE AHHHHHHHHHHH AFTER 3 MONTHS!!!!!!!! We were so so so so so happy and proud of him.

Sunday, FASTING BRINGS MIRACLES. We had 6 people show up to church ON THEIR OWN, which is unheard of here. It's usually like 3 max. I was so thankful. We also were able to have consejo de barrio (ward counsel) which was a blessing and we got to set up citas (appointments) with members to acompañarnos esta semana que viene (accompany us in the week that is coming up). We had a really great lesson with a member´s family on Saturday just to strengthen them a bit since they were going through a rough patch, and set some goals. Melanie, a very shy 12 year old, set the goal to better herself in saying her personal prayers and work towards saying them in public... Well guess who gave the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting yesterday? Melanie. My companion and I had tears in our eyes.

I truly love the people here in Quinchuqui. We are working on helping Maria and Luis get married since theyre conviviendo, and they have such desires to be baptised. They both came to church yesterday. Miracles happened! Rocio, an investigator, the mom of Willian, a recent convert who we taught a bit, reappeared! After dissappearing for like a week and a half. It was awesome, we got to teach her about ley de castidad. Yuli, Maria´s daughter literally asked us to teach her- we had been teaching Diana, her sister, and she wasn´t really home all that often, but she´s been in a couple lessons we have had and now she pasars more tiempo en casa (spends more time at home) and wants to know more, and her own Book of Mormon. So happy. Jessica, a lesser active recent convert from about 7 months ago came to church! Elena and her daughter Wuary who is preparing for baptism came on their own as well.

Heavenly Father is amazing. I am just happy that I have the opportunity to brighten someone´s day a little more with the light of Christ and this amazing Gospel. That is what it´s all about.

Miss you alllllllllllllllll.

I'm really really sorry but we are in a ghetto internet cafe and NONE OF THE PICS ARE SENDING AND I HAD LIKE 5480049 BILLION. So, I'm sorry.

BUT you will be able to see my sunburnt, bug-bitten, beautiful face on the 11th FOR SKYPEEEEEE FOR MUDDERS DAY! Wooo. The president hasn't specified the specifics, so it might not be on the 11th, but I shall let y'all know.

Say your prayers and go to choichhhhhhh,

Con amor (with love),

Hermana BowmanPS CONGRATS TO RACH AND JASE FOR Y'ALLS LITTLE BUNDLE OF JOY, KLOE BAIR!!!!! What a cute little angel from heaven. I love y'all.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Follow by Email! (easiest way to stay updated)

Search My Blog

My name is Lauren Bowman and I am a sister missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in QUITO ECUADOR North mission! The creation & purpose of this blog is so I can keep all my fambam/bffs/coworkers/stalkers updated. Check back often to hear all about my adventures for the next 18 months! :)